Onion Rings

Today, I feel like an onion - we both have layers. J 

I had this big plan to post part II of my trifecta (filled with charm and wit of course) and then I looked at the date (9/11) and I couldn't do it (which is weird for me because once I have a plan in motion, I usually just run with it - regardless of what is happening around me). As I typed my post, I felt kinda petty going on and on about how great onion rings are - when really, other than providing me an outlet and a recipe to try, they really don't matter - especially when I am aware that there are so many other more important topics I could be blogging about.  Someone is fighting in a foreign land so that I can feel safe in my home. Someone is mourning the loss of a spouse, a child or a friend. Someone has lost their job, someone else is going to lose their home. Someone's marriage is falling apart. Someone is fighting cancer and someone else is losing their faith in men, God or both.

How could I blog about onion rings?

Would you think I'm being superficial for wanting to be reflective when I hadn't put a single thought into it until I saw a calendar?

As  a general rule I try not to care too much what other people think about what I write, how I think, how i dress, how I rear my kids, how I manage my money, or how I manage my stress...but sometimes I do. Sometimes I worry that people will read my blog and think that I don't care or have an opinion about what is really important in life and they will dismiss me as a person who is out of touch and oblivious to what is happening all around me. Sometimes I worry people will think I'm insensitive for blogging about something as insignificant as onion rings. 

Today is one of those days.

Today, I don’t want people to think I’m insensitive to the challenges we all face so I’m not going to go on and on about onion rings. Today I’m just going to share a recipe, some pictures and then go play a game with my kids, laugh with some friends and remember that 10 years ago, I thought the end of the world had come.

Today I’m going to marvel at how we can forgive, how we can heal, how we can move on, how we can build one another up, and how we can change when we never thought we could.

Onion Rings

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Ingredients:

½ cup all-purpose flour, divided


1 large egg, room temperature


½ cup buttermilk, room temperature


¼ teaspoon white pepper


½ teaspoon salt 


30 saltine crackers


4 cups kettle-cooked potato chips


1 large yellow onion, cut into ¼” rings

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Adjust oven racks to lower-middle and upper-middle positions and heat oven to 450 degrees F. Place a piece of parchment paper out on the counter to place your “battered” onion rings on before cooking. Pulse saltines and potato chips together in a food processor until finely ground and then transfer crumbs into a shallow baking dish.
2. Place ¼ cup flour in shallow baking dish.
3. In another shallow baking dish beat the egg and buttermilk together then add in the remaining ¼ cup flour, salt and pepper.
4. Working one at a time, cover each onion ring in the contents of each shallow baking dish in the following order: 1)-buttermilk mixture, 2)-flour, 3)-buttermilk, 4)-crumbs. Place each covered onion ring onto the parchment paper and continue until all onion rings are covered.
5. Pour 3 tablespoons oil onto each of two rimmed baking sheets. Place baking sheets in oven and heat the oil until just smoking, about 8 minutes. Carefully tilt heated sheets to coat evenly with oil, then arrange onion rings on sheets. Return sheets to oven and bake onion rings for about 15 minutes. Flip rings ½ through baking and switch the sheets on the baking racks. Bake until golden on both sides. Remove from oven and if necessary drain on paper towels. Serve immediately.

Source: Adapted from Michelle, The Brown Eyed Baker.

Gwenevere